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Two takes on Great War essay

Tues., Nov. 18, 2014

Re: Our skewed vision of the Great War, Insight Nov. 16

Our skewed vision of the Great War, Insight Nov. 16

Finally, a historically-informed piece on the First World War, and it’s about time. With all the talk of sacrifice, fighting for freedom and democracy, and Canada’s coming-of-age, it is apparent that Canadians nowadays conflate the First World War with the Second, as though they were Parts 1 and 2 of the same conflict. The facts are otherwise.

We entered the Great War only because Britain did, automatically as a part of the British Empire. Britain declared war on Germany essentially to defend its political interests in Europe, and certainly not to fight for liberal democracy. How could the British Empire claim to do so, when it was allied with Tsarist Russia, a far less free and democratic state than either Imperial Germany or Habsburg Austria?

Perhaps it was just as well that the Central Powers lost the Great War. But it must be admitted that the victors’ peace, the Treaty of Versailles, which Prime Minister Robert Borden so proudly signed, left some terrible legacies.

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To name two: First, it saddled Germany with the sole guilt for the war (historically false) and an astronomic reparations bill (impossible to pay), and thus doomed the Weimar Republic to failure, and ultimately to the Nazi takeover in 1933.

Second, the peace of Versailles created the mess in the Middle East that we suffer from today, complete with Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq – all of them completely artificial entities created by British and French imperialist diplomats.

The dubious reasons for the Great War – the propaganda-distorted issues surrounding it, Canada’s subservient role as a British Dominion, and the disastrous consequences of that War – all put into serious question the heroic myths about it that we hear so often.

Canada’s entry into the Second World War, and the principles involved in that war, were totally different. We made our own decision to enter, and we made it for a noble reason, to fight fascist tyranny in Europe.

Steven Spencer, Peterborough

After reading Mark Bourrie’s essay on the Great War, I thought that he was unfair to Canada because of our participation in it. I do not think we were a “bad” country at the time; however, I do agree that we did enter the conflict because of our attachment to Britain.

In my mind, he did a real disservice to the thousands of Canadians, especially those of us who are still here, who lost close relatives due to the war. I am sure my grandmother didn’t think we were in a bad war when she saw her three sons off to fight for Canada. Only one returned (my father) who endured an enemy gas attack that eventually let to his demise in 1932.

I will continue to believe that even if Mr Bourrie’s opinion is that our part was not a good event in the history of Canada, our soldiers did us proud and we should always remember this.

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